• Forum
  • Lounge
  • Bad question asking and my other pet pee

 
Bad question asking and my other pet peeve

Pages: 12
closed account (3qX21hU5)
One of my pet peeves is when people come onto forums and just post a wall of code and say fix this. Is it really that hard to take 10 minutes to write up at least a few details about your problem like what you have tried, what the errors are, ect?

A lot of times I will spend a half hour or more working through a problem on this forum when I could be doing something else, so I don't think it is unreasonable to ask for a little bit of their time since they are the ones needing help after all.

I know what most of you will probably say is just ignore them posts and move on. Which is what I have been doing, and it has worked okay so far.

Except I keep seeing more and more posts like this where they will expect us to read through their whole problem not knowing what to look for, fix all the errors in it, put their name on top for them, date it, and then email it to their professor.

Or it is plain as day that they have put no effort into trying to find the answer themselves and just want to be able to copy and paste a answer... Since when is it normal that instead of working through a problem by yourself, you go onto some forum ask for the answer and get the correct code?

Don't get me wrong I love helping people but only when they actually show that they are willing to learn. I would much rather help someone with how to declare variables that I can tell is eager to learn but just isn't familiar with programming. Then help someone that is learning about classes but it is obvious they just want to get their assignment done as quick as possible so they can hand it in and do something else.

Does anyone else notice how much people rely on other people giving them the answers now days instead of finding them their selves? I know this is a kind of random pointless thread but it has been really getting on my nerves lately and just wanted to know if anyone else sees it and hates it. Also because I read a really good article a bit ago that shares the exact same point of view I had and wanted to share it.

The article can be found here (Most have already read it probably)
~ http://mattgemmell.com/2008/12/08/what-have-you-tried/

Anyways thanks for reading my pointless post ;p

Last edited on
Its not just online either. I'm in a digital electronics class where we design circuits and write code for microprocessors and people always ask me for my circuit designs and code, without even attempting the problem. It's not even that difficult either, they're just lazy and play games for the entire class.
closed account (N36fSL3A)
I know that I don't really hang around the other forums, but every once and I while I go to the beginner forums to check if I can help with a problem. 90 percent of the time I do not post because I don't feel like reading a wall of code with nothing other than "Fix this for me"
I don't know what's wrong with people, it's like they don't like learning. I personally love learning and those a-ha moments feel wonderful, plus it is as effortless as listening and reading.

Oh wait, 90% of my class mates can't listen or read effectively. My bad, I guess learning is pretty hard in that case.
closed account (3qX21hU5)
I don't know what's wrong with people, it's like they don't like learning. I personally love learning and those a-ha moments feel wonderful, plus it is as effortless as listening and reading.


I know right. I don't get why people get into programming if they don't like to solve problems... I mean that is all programming is about. It really puzzles me why people that don't want to solve problems are trying to learn programming.

I mean I don't care how smart you are. I would much rather help teach programming to someone that has trouble doing simple arithmetic, but loves to learn stuff and will put 100% effort into their problems. Even though it might be easier teach someone that is a lot smarter then the first guy but slacks off and doesn't put any effort into their work.


I just don't get why it is the new standard to search the internet or forums for answers to your problems, instead of trying to work through the problem by yourself (Meaning for a few hours if not more) before you ask someone for help. More and more people are starting to do this, and more and more people are starting to expect a answer to their questions even when they post something like this

Here is my code. HELP!

The code
...
...
...


It also doesn't help when people just automatically post complete answers for them that they can copy and paste with their name on it (I have been guilty of this a few times so not judging anyone). But that is a whole different pet peeve of mine (One of many I assure you ;p).
Last edited on
I just don't get why it is the new standard to search the internet or forums for answers to your problems, ...

I'm not sure people even bother to search, given the number of repeat questions that turn on the forums. I don't think many people even search cplusplus.com before posting, to see if their question is a repeat, though it's near the top of the beginner's "read before posting!" message (non-beginners should know better!)

To quote

Before You Ask

Before asking a question a, do the following:
1.Try to find an answer by searching the archives of the forum you plan to post to.
2.Try to find an answer by searching the Web.
3.Try to find an answer by reading the manual.
4.Try to find an answer by reading a FAQ.
5.Try to find an answer by inspection or experimentation.
6.Try to find an answer by asking a skilled friend.

Prepare your question. Think it through. Hasty-sounding questions get hasty answers or none at all.
Welcome -- read before posting!
http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/beginner/1/

Is there a new release of this list about somewhere, with:

0.Ask for a potted answer on cplusplus.com before wasting your time doing any real research or other work.

Question of the "I don't know what XXXX is" are particularly annoying, esp. when the top Google (etc) hit to "what is a XXXX" is more often than not the answer they want/need!

Andy

Last edited on
Question of the "I don't know what XXXX is" are particularly annoying
Most aannoying are question "What happens if I do XXXX?"
Do it and check, damn it!
What happens if I ask a question like this where checking what happens is asking the question?
closed account (ETAkoG1T)
wtf LB, you are are going all recursive on us now :P

Most aannoying are question "What happens if I do XXXX?"
Do it and check, damn it!


While that may be true in most cases, it certainly isn't advisable for every noob, or even just one, to go and divide by zero out of curiosity. Creating black holes is no light matter.
closed account (ETAkoG1T)
Creating black holes is no light matter.
I see what you did there :P Dividing by zero isn't very programming related at all, they should already know that from math :)
closed account (N36fSL3A)
I always wondered about the divide by zero thingy. Until my teacher told me it was already acknowledged and the number was undefined. Lol. What happens if you try it in C++?
Your program crashes: http://ideone.com/4WQhFR
If you use a floating point type it is generally just the special NaN constant.
Last edited on
MiiNiPaa wrote:
Most aannoying are question "What happens if I do XXXX?"
Do it and check, damn it!
FredBill30 wrote:
I always wondered about the divide by zero thingy... What happens if you try it in C++?
Under IEEE 754, x/0 is signum(x)*infinity for non-zero real values of x. It is NaN for zero values of x. IIRC, infinite values can be operated on, but if divided by each other or by zero, the result is NaN.
Fun fact: NaN != NaN, in fact that is how you check for NaN - by seeing if the variable does not equal itself. It drives people crazy when they can't compare it against some lovely Double.NaN constant.
Last edited on
LB wrote:
Fun fact: NaN != NaN
All comparison operations aside from != will return false when used on NaN's. This breaks strict weak ordering of doubles, so check for NaN first if you want to sort container of doubles...
Also there is isnan() function in <cmath>.
Last edited on
Another example of bad question asking:
http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/general/100821/
http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/general/101986/
http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/general/102454/
Why do some people does not give you error information as if it was state secret?
It is okay if they just still does not understand how important error information is, but 43 posts and at least 3 threads where error information was asked? (I think if we were able to see all post history, we would find more examples)

Also there is people who are tying to move discussion in private messages of whoever answered first.
andywestken wrote:
Welcome -- read before posting!
http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/beginner/1/

Is there a new release of this list about somewhere, ...

I did check the ESR version http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html and no Zeroth Law was there.
Probably every beginner should read this : http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html.
But if they are too too lazy to even search on Google and other forums or write to describe their problem it is too much to expect.

@keskiverto
Zeroth law what ?
Did you mean this-
The zeroth law of thermodynamics states that if two systems are each in thermal equilibrium with a third system, they are also in thermal equilibrium with each other.
-Wikipedia
Last edited on
Pages: 12